On U-M Gateway: three species of tiny frogs discovered in Peruvian Andes

Given that the newly discovered frog species live in the Pui Pui Protected Forest, much of their habitat is formally protected. However, amphibians worldwide face multiple threats—and Andean amphibians are no exception.

A University of Michigan ecologist and his colleagues have discovered three more frog species in the Peruvian Andes, raising to five the total number of new frog species the group has found in a remote protected forest since 2012.

The three newly found species live in the mountain forests and Andean grasslands of the Pui Pui Protected Forest in central Peru. They are described in a study published online July 27, 2017 in the journal Zootaxa. All three species measure an inch or less in length, from snout to vent.

"Our team has now described five new species of frogs from this region, with several more to come in the near future," said Rudolf von May, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Professor Dan Rabosky at the U-M Museum of Zoology and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Other team members are in Illinois, the Czech Republic and Peru.

"These discoveries demonstrate the need for further scientific exploration of such Andean habitats," he said. "While the Pui Pui Protected Forest was established in 1985, virtually no biological surveys were conducted in the park for nearly three decades, and the potential for additional discoveries is enormous."